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James P Godsill

LimerickKnocklong (Limerick)

Hello!

I'm still search for my great grandfather's family; James P Godsill lived in White Plains, NY around 1905, married my grgrandmother, Elizabeth T Holden; he died around 1915, leaving his widow with 2 young daughters, Eileen Patricia and Geraldine Elizabeth. I believe my gr aunt's middle name, Patricia, is the feminized middle name of James -- Patrick (of course, it could have been Paul or Peter, too, but I'm making an assumption based on the history of naming...)

I really don't know if this is the Parish where he was born or not. In some US records he is listed as having been born in Ireland, and brought with his mother, Mary, to the US around 1870. In other records he is listed as having been born in NY.

The spelling that has been passed down is Godsill --not Godsil, Godsell, Gotsell, etc. The only other Godsills I can find are the ones living in CT and in the midwestern US. Errors in recording in the US was very shoddy, at best, so even the spelling on confirmed records I've found vary, one to another.

I would dearly love to find this particular family lineage. Can anyone help me? Thank you!

Skyler Wind

skymama65

5 replies

Hi Skyler

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Do you know or can you guess at an approximate year of birth for James?

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

IrelandXO member

The records indicate that he was born between 1867 to 1875. The latter records don't fit what i do know as well as the former date does. Considering that my ggrandmother is widowed, with daughter's only 2 and 4 years old, by 1915, when she herself is is only 30 (b 1880, confirmed), my guess is that he had a few more years than her.

skymama65

I don't know if this is any help but seeing as you are not sure if you have the correct parish, here is a possibility in the same part of County Limerick.  There was a Godsell family living on the Castle Oliver estate in 1826 at a place called Tubber St. Anne according to the rent folio.  The name on the folio is "Catherine & J Godsell" in 1826 with just a house and garden.  I don't know where Tubber St. Anne is but I suspect it is close to Castle Oliver and the family might have been estate employees.  The estate maintained a numbering system and the Godsells were number 352.  In the folio for the period 1839 to 1850 this entry is added doe lot 352:  "Term expired of the term got the 1st May 1840.  Margaret & Mary Godsell continued as tenants at will.  Whole at the former rent from the 25th March, 1840.  Note - No house to be built on the lot."
The folio indicates that rent was paid up to about 1850 but I have not imaged the subsequent folio which is held in the National Library of Ireland.  I can find the manuscript reference numbers if you wish to explore this further yourself at the NLI.

Tim O'Connell (Darragh Limerick)

 

 

 

Tim O'ConnellIrelandXO Volunteer

Tim, thank you so very much for digging this up!  If you have links for me that I can use for follow-up research, I'd be even more grateful! I'm not sure where to go or what to do with the info you've provided. Do you know where these women went? Or if they had children and what names they might have had? My family definitely spelled Godsill with the I and 2 L's, but that could have been changed when they got to the US, too, though I don't know why (census taker error, perhaps?). 

James P Godsill was a Plumber, according to NY directories His brother, John (if I have the correct Godsill line), was an electrician. I believe their sister, Julia was a seamstress, and their mother's name was Mary (never found her husband's name in US records). 

The only other Godsills I've found in the US in the same period were on the Connecticut shoreline and in the midwest, with a lot of overlapping or seemingly shared information (such as siblings and mother's name). 

oi. It is so convoluted and confusing! 

peace

sky

skymama65

Thanks Tim!

Clare

Genealogy Support

IrelandXO member

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